At a time when the West Bengal government released papers on Netaji Subash Chandra Bose, a letter written by him from Austria to a book publisher in Chennai highlights his association with Tamil Nadu. The letter was written on December 27, 1937, giving his approval for translation of his works – ‘Taruner Swapna’ (The Dream of Youth) and ‘Nutaner Sandhan’ (Search for the New) to V. Kuppuswamy Aiyer of the Alliance Publications.
Netaji apologised to Kuppuswamy Aiyer for the delay in replying to his letter dated November 8.
‘The Dream of Youth’ was published with the title ‘Ilaignan Kanavu’ and ‘Search for the New’ as ‘Puthu Vazhi’. ‘The Dream of Youth’ was a collection of letters Netaji wrote from jail and ‘The Search of New’ was lectures delivered by him at Calcutta Sahitya Samaj. The translation was done by novelist and writer T.N. Kumarasamy and his brother T.N. Senapathy, who were well-versed in Bengali.
Kumarasamy had met Rabindranath Tagore in Viswabharathi. He not only learnt Bengali, but also obtained the rights to translate Tagore’s work in Tamil.
When Netaji visited Chennai in 1939, Kuppuswamy Aiyer’s son K.V.S. Mani showed him the translated copies at the palatial house on Bharathi Salai, now known as Gandhi Peak.
“The British somehow sensed that my grandfather was publishing Netaji’s works. Before they could act, he despatched copies to Sri Lanka, Singapore and Malaysia. It was reprinted in Malaysia,” said V. Srinivasan, grandson of Kuppuswamy Aiyer.
Kuppuswamy Aiyer had printed the books in featherweight papers and burnt all the copies when police in plainclothes approached him. “The soot caused by the burning of the copies remained on the wall of our house for many years,” said Mr Srinivasan, claiming that the translation was responsible for many Tamils joining the Indian National Army (INA) founded by Netaji.
